May The Vegan Kind subscription box

So last Saturday there was a knock on my door and it was the postman with my The Vegan Kind box.  I was quite excited about it as I did really enjoy the last one and I was interested to see what I would get this time.

On top was the information about The Vegan Kind, the charity they support, and a description of all the products.

The recipe that came with this month's box is the Summer Fruity Water by My Fruity Kitchen.  I haven't had the chance to try this yet (though I have tried the cashew cream cheese from last month and it's delicious), but am thinking this is the perfect time with all this sun - maybe with gin added.  I have had a look at My Fruity Kitchen website though and the recipes look amazing - the Healthy Chocolate Milkshake is most definitely on my list.

Unfortunately I'm not a fan of Salt and Vinegar (I know, I know, that's really weird and unusual) so I didn't get the chance to try these Popchips.  But I am keeping an eye out for these in a flavour I like as the idea of getting to eat something that's crunchy (my favourite snack) without all the oil.  I'm not sure if the other flavours are vegan though so I'll need to check on that.

This is definitely the product I'm most intrigued by, I don't think I've even seen water that's actually been tapped from a tree.  TAPPED ticks all the boxes with it's organic trees, no refined sugars, not from concentrate, and it contains 25% of your daily manganese (an antioxidant).  The only thing that worried me about this is the fact it comes from a birch tree (the pollen of which I'm allergic too).  Thankfully there was no reaction to it and the taste is very mild.  You don't get a particularly strong taste of the berries themselves, in fact I can taste the grape juice more anything, but it is refreshing and something I will look for if I'm needing something when I'm out.

I love peanuts, absolutely love them.  In fact, I have to be very careful I don't eat entire bags all in one go, so I was interested in how this would taste.  Protein bars don't tend to taste particularly pleasant by any stretch of the word and the last time I ate a protein bar it had whey protein in it.  I ended up feeling ill afterwards and haven't eaten one since. However, the Creative Nature Peanut Protein bar contains pea protein instead of whey and there was no negative impact from it.  I wouldn't say I was particularly keen on the taste, even with the peanuts in it, but it would definitely be my first choice over any other protein bar if I decided I need one.

The one thing I missed when I became a vegetarian wasn't bacon (I know, I know, I'm weird) but chewy sweets.  I used to love them and they would be my snack of choice at the cinema.  The Jealous Life Tropical Wonder Sweets don't have quite the same chewy texture I'm used to, but they still have quite a squiggy feel and the flavours are amazing.  They taste the most like the fruit they are meant to represent then any sweet I've had before.  I'm definitely going to be looking out for more flavours of these in the future.

As my diet has become healthier and more plant based I've become less interested in chocolate, but I do enjoy having a little bit now and then.  It's mainly dark chocolate that I go for now and the chilli flavour is my favourite.  I've never seen the brand Conscious before and I was very interested to try a completely vegan chocolate bar.  The one thing I will say about this is that if you love mint you will love this.  Made from peppermint essential oil it is a very strong flavour and cuts through the bitterness of the cocoa.  I've already had a look at the Conscious Chocolate website and they do have chili flavoured.  Going to be getting myself one of those I think.

I particularly love the non-food items in these boxes and this time it's this Friendly Soap facial cleansing bar.  I like that this is fragrance free, which is usually the first thing I choice, and the very small number of ingredients (cocoa butter, olive oil, coconut oil, and water) which are all ingredients that work well with my skin.  I haven't tried this yet as I still have a face wash that I'm using at the moment, but once that is finished I will move onto this.  I'm actually enjoying using a bar soap over shower gel to wash my body and I'm expecting the same will be true for my face.  I might even moved to a bar to wash my hair.

On top of the discount codes you get for most of the products in this box you also get a code for a free pack of Sgaia vegan Streaky Rashers.  I've never heard of Sgaia before and haven't seen any in any of the stores near me, so I had a quick look online to see what they produce and it seems to be the vegan equivalent of gourmet meat.  I am thinking of getting the streaky rashers for my partner Jim.  He's not vegetarian/ vegan, but is trying to greatly reduce the amount of process meat he eats for health reasons.  These might be a particularly good substitute.  

So far I've enjoyed the two The Vegan Kind boxes I've had so it'll be interesting to see what June brings.

See my last blog on The Vegan Kind here.

Project Pan Update #4 and a Quick Declutter.

So this month hasn't been a particularly good month for using up my products. Firstly I was ill at the beginning and this time it took me a while to feel well enough to even vaguely bother with putting make up on.  My work contract had also ended at the end of March and it seemed a bit pointless putting any on to fill out online applications.  I've never been one to feel that I have to wear make up so I just didn't bother. 

That being said, I still managed to make a fair amount of progress on the eye shadows.  I don't think I'm going to finish all the shadows I wanted to by the end of the year, but I should at least finished the oldest ones. Using the white shadow as a cheek highlight is definitely helping me work through it.  I'm not going to lie, it isn't the most natural highlighting ever, but if it helps use it up I'm happy to be un-natural.  The brown eye-liner is the one I'm most surprised about as it now seems to be going much faster than I expected.

The product I'm most happy with is the Lily Lolo primer as I've now hit pan on the yellow side.  Right now I'm trying to get all the product on the left side and will then work my way around. I use this part of the primer to put over the red areas of my face before I add more product and it works really well for this.  The only thing this product doesn't work well for is an actual eye primer.  I have very oily eyelids and this didn't help keep my eye shadows on, but if you have drier lids it might actually work for you. 

I had hoped to have this Elf Teal eye liner finished by this point, but seeing as I only used it for about 1 week I haven't actually made much progress.  I will be using it almost every day from now on so hopefully the next up-date will mean that's it gone.  Still enjoying the colour though.

This product isn't on my original list, but as it's a colour I don't tend to reach for I wanted to use is up.  It is the Natural Collections Lip Lines pencil in Almond.  However, it really doesn't match my lip colour and looks more orange on me than anything else.  I was using it now and then under my Natural Collections Fig Leaf lip stick to vary the colour and I'm doing the same now with the Mac lipstick I'm trying to use up.  It is a very hard pencil, but does product a good pigment of colour.  I actually quite like using the pencils from this range.

 

While in the past I was trying to work my way through one lipstick at a time I did find that I began to get very bored of it by the end, so I've decided to work on two this time.  They are the Max Factor Colour Elixir lipstick in Cherry Kiss 840 and the Mac Cremesheen in Creme Cup.  I'm not particularly keen on the smell of either of these, but the Max Factor is particularly unpleasant.  I quite like the colour, but the smell and the fact that Max Factor is not cruelty free means I definitely buy this once it's used up.  It does seem to be going quite quickly though.  The Mac Creme Cup isn't a colour the most people would recommend for my olive skin tone, but as I usually wear a lip liner with this it actually looks fine.  I also find that as my lips are very pigment a swipe of this actually produces a tea rose colour.  Mac is also not cruelty free and so I won't be buying this colour again any way.  I really just brought this to see what the hype is about Mac lip sticks and I while I like the texture I don't think it's much better than any other lipstick.  

I might not have been wearing makeup while I wasn't working but I did decide to go through my stuff and get rid of a whole load of things that I no longer use or like.  The pile ended up being a lot larger than I was expecting and I'm quite pleased about that.

I got rid of a number of tops and pajamas which either had holes in them or are now completely misshapen.  I also got rid of a whole load of boxes, books, and accessories that I had been keeping because I liked the look of but never actually used or reached for.

Next were three pairs of shoes that just hurt my feet.  I was quite upset with the brown boots as I've had those for years and wore them almost every day.  But, unfortunately, all the padding inside was completely gone and even adding inserts didn't make them more comfortable.  I shall be looking for a replacement.

These are a leftover from my stationery obsessed days.  I just kept collecting stationery but then never actually used them.  So I finally gave up and just gave them to a charity shop so someone else can actually get some use out of them.

Now that I have a temp job I'll be back to wearing makeup almost every day and will hopefully have a number of finished products to show next time.

Below are links to all my previous project pan blogs:

• Introduction
• Project Pan Update #1
• Project Pan Update #2
• Project Pan Update #3

Product Review: Conditioners

I've been using more 'natural' conditioners for many years now.  It started after I had been having problems with mild eczema on my skin that wasn't lifting and when I thought I had dandruff but all the anti-dandruff products weren't actually working.  So I started doing a little research and found out about the possibility of some common ingredients in our beauty products being allergens.  As my scalp seemed to be where I was having the most problems, along with down my lower back (where the products runs down when I wash my hair), I decided I would start with conditioners and shampoos.  I should probably explain my hair type first.  As with the rest of me, it's dry and, while I do have a fair amount of it, it's fine and easily tangled.  It doesn't really get greasy though and I can easily get away with only washing it every three days.

So conditioners first.

The first conditioner I'm starting with you unfortunately can't actually get anymore, but it's one I've used and loved for years and now judge all other conditioners by.  I was very sorry when I found out they'd stopped making it and bulk bought it.  It is the Naked Rescue Shea Butter and Olive Oil Intensive Care Conditioner.  While I don't dye my hair and almost no heat on it I still like to use an intensive conditioner as it reduces the frizziness I have a problem with.  I found that this conditioner not only smelt nice, but it also made my hair very soft, greatly reduced the frizziness, and the skin problems I was having on my back went away.  Once it was all used up (I do mean all) I started looking for something new.

The next conditioner I tried was the Kind Natured Nourishing Ylang Ylang & Sage Conditioner.  I picked this conditioner up from Boots as it seemed to tick all the boxes that had made me love Naked products.  It is sulphate, paraben and petrochemicals free and has the 97% natural stamp.  I did love the smell, but the actual product did nothing for my dry hair.  In fact, my hair became even frizzier than before and I definitely had to do an oil treatment afterwards.  I think if your hair was less fine and actually more on the greasy side it would actually suit you, but unfortunately it wasn't for me.  I haven't tried any of their other products, but I might try the Super Shine conditioner.

So I was having a little wander around my local Holland & Barrett and noticed the Australian Organics Nourishing Restorative Conditioner.  This product has no petrochemicals, synthetic colours, synthetic fragrances, or animal bi-products.  I actually really like this product.  It smelt nice, did make my hair feel very soft, and did go a long way to helping with the frizz.  I did still need to use a bit of oil afterwards to help with the frizziness and it wasn't as good as my beloved Naked conditioner, but it was a good substitute.  

I then decided I would try making my own.  I had a little look on google and actually found a good recipe from a YouTuber I'm already subscribed to - Ela Gale.  Ela's does a number of DIY videos so it's definitely worth checking out her channel.  The recipe I tried was the Natural Deep Hair Conditioner as these are the conditioner that seem to work best on my hair and I already had products I needed.  It was very easy to make and smells great, but I'm actually finding it a bit too thick for the type of hair I have.  It's definitely helping to reduce the number of split ends I'm getting, but my hair doesn't actually absorb that much of the product and I end up having to wash my hair at least twice.  Even with this double wash my hair still has some oils left in it causing it to stick together once it has dried.  I have now started using less but adding the Argan Oil Hair Treatment.  This has definitely helping my hair absorb the conditioner more (and it's helping me use up the Argan Oil) along with blow drying my hair a little when it's almost dry.  I still like this conditioner but I think the coconut oil in the recipe is just too thick for my hair type so, when I make it again, I'll swap that out for argan oil or olive oil and see how that goes.

I think I'll keep up with making my own conditioner at the moment as it's actually pretty easy to do and uses products I already have in my home.  I also know what's going into it and that means there's less chance of me having a negative reaction to it.

Is there a more 'natural' conditioner that you use or do you have a favourite DIY recipe?  Let me know  as I'm always happy to try more.